Western Railroad Discussion > An ocean of containers

The recent container threads have been awesome.

Always learning!

Still looking for the elusive Maersk container up here on the Nevada Sub of the UPRR Overland Route. 

Which opens up a question that you all can answer.  

Out here there are a lot of stack trains and the number of different shipping containers is nothing short of amazing.

No Maersk yet this isn't where they run but holy cow there must be a couple dozen different container companies on these trains.  

Curious how many active container companies are sporting their logo on the Western Railroads?

Will start with Prime they sure do move some stuff.

If you guys can add to this list maybe post some pics.  

There must be some rare ones out there?

Thanks!

Chuck 

There are also "liquid" containers out there. Not near as common as the "box" containers but are interesting to see.

Brian V.
Vincennes, IN.

---

---

---

I could be remembering wrong but isn't the big Maersk shift toward UP via traffic out of LA/LB, which obviously wouldn't be moving across northern NV???

The topography in the background didn't look right for the state of Nevada, so I re-read the initial post, and it mentions the Nevada Sub, which I think is Northern Iowa.  (I think it's also pronounced ne-VAY-duh in the Hawkeye State.)  

Jeff Gast
Greenwood, Indiana  

AaronJ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I could be remembering wrong but isn't the big
> Maersk shift toward UP via traffic out of LA/LB,
> which obviously wouldn't be moving across northern
> NV???

Correct.  UP didn't get an exlusive or all encompassing contract with Maersk, it's just out of LA/LB for the Chicago, and Texas/southern lanes.  There has been no change on the traffic over the LA&SL from LA/LB to SLC and Denver, and I would assume nothing is going to change out of Norcal, or the PNW.

inrdjlg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The topography in the background didn't look right
> for the state of Nevada, so I re-read the initial
> post, and it mentions the Nevada Sub, which I
> think is Northern Iowa.  (I think it's also
> pronounced ne-VAY-duh in the Hawkeye State.)  
>
> Jeff Gast
> Greenwood, Indiana  

The Nevada sub, as mentioned in the original post, is in northern Nevada. No debate with that. Specifically, the Overland Route subs in Iowa are the Clinton, Boone, Omaha, and Blair subs. With that stated, I would agree this picture was taken at Nevada Iowa where the Spine line Mason City sub connects to the Overland route Clinton sub. So while there is a Nevada Iowa, the Nevada sub is NOT in Iowa.

AaronJ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> The Nevada sub, as mentioned in the original post,
> is in northern Nevada. No debate with that.
> Specifically, the Overland Route subs in Iowa are
> the Clinton, Boone, Omaha, and Blair subs. With
> that stated, I would agree this picture was taken
> at Nevada Iowa where the Spine line Mason City sub
> connects to the Overland route Clinton sub. So
> while there is a Nevada Iowa, the Nevada sub is
> NOT in Iowa.

I believe the post with the bulk liquid container photos is in response to the later part of the OP's post, asking about 'rare' container types.

I don't believe that Maersk ships call at the Port of Oakland which is probably why you don't see many Maersk containers on trains going through Northern Nevada.

inrdjlg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The topography in the background didn't look right
> for the state of Nevada, so I re-read the initial
> post, and it mentions the Nevada Sub, which I
> think is Northern Iowa.  (I think it's also
> pronounced ne-VAY-duh in the Hawkeye State.)  
>
> Jeff Gast
> Greenwood, Indiana  

Where does the poster of those pictures claim that they were in Nevada?

BoostedFridge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> AaronJ Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > The Nevada sub, as mentioned in the original
> post,
> > is in northern Nevada. No debate with that.
> > Specifically, the Overland Route subs in Iowa
> are
> > the Clinton, Boone, Omaha, and Blair subs. With
> > that stated, I would agree this picture was
> taken
> > at Nevada Iowa where the Spine line Mason City
> sub
> > connects to the Overland route Clinton sub. So
> > while there is a Nevada Iowa, the Nevada sub is
> > NOT in Iowa.
>
> I believe the post with the bulk liquid container
> photos is in response to the later part of the
> OP's post, asking about 'rare' container types.

Correct. I was just responding to the post saying the Nevada sub was in Iowa, which it is not.

Excuse me for the misunderstanding!  I now realize that the original poster who'd referenced UPRR's Nevada Sub was not the same person who'd posted the container photos.  In fact, CSX2605 lives nowhere close to the UP, the state of Nevada, or Northern Iowa, but rather along the CSX CE&D Sub south of Vincennes, Indiana (if indeed he took the container shots close to home).

Jeff Gast
Greenwood, Indiana  

Nothing changes until someone(s) see daily fast or faster movement of their traffic than what they are using now. Then the watching begins to see it continues and there is a slow train what was the cause. On and on and finally they decide to ship more and see what happens. Cost vs time vs every day.

Posted from Android

Not nearly as many as there used to be. Been a lot of consolidation in the past decade or so. International shipping companies have merged and railroads have moved from individual rr-owned boxes to pools used by multiple roads. 

inrdjlg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Excuse me for the misunderstanding!  I now
> realize that the original poster who'd referenced
> UPRR's Nevada Sub was not the same person who'd
> posted the container photos.  In fact, CSX2605
> lives nowhere close to the UP, the state of
> Nevada, or Northern Iowa, but rather along the CSX
> CE&D Sub south of Vincennes, Indiana (if indeed he
> took the container shots close to home).
>
> Jeff Gast
> Greenwood, Indiana  
Yes, taken here at home in southwestern IN. I was referencing the poster mentioning "rare ones" and do not remember anyone talking about bulk liquid containers in the original post about containers. Just thought I would throw this in of liquid shipments. No bandits opening these doors. LOL!

There are a wide variety of companies in the container business that's for sure!

Lost count after a dozen different logos rolled by this afternoon.   

When a container shipper goes bust do the containers still sport the old logo or must they be repainted?

Chuck 

There are many containers in use with the logos of older companies painted over, or stripped off.  The new owner will put its own markings on the box.

Some empty containers returning to their Korean, Japanese, or Chinese points of origin will contain bags of organic beans and grains. Not fully loaded, of course.  Unlike the US many foreign buyers are very concerned with the pesticides, fertilizers, etc used on their food crops and require traceability all the way back to the specific farm.

Depends on who actually owns the container.   Some lines have long term leases on boxes directly from major leasing companies. When the lease terminates or the line goes under, like Hanjin, the leasing company that originally owned the container has the containers redelivered to them at a container depot as part of the lease termination or line dissolvement.   If the leasing company decides to lease those containers out again to other ocean carriers they will normally have the logos removed at the container depot the container is returned to.  This does not always take place if the demand for containers is great.   I worked in the ocean transportation industry for 36 years and on some occasions we leased boxes with the former owners lettering still on them.  This created a problem as truckers did not always know who containers belonged to and returned them to the original line because they read the lettering still on the container.

In mergers if the line who was purchase actually owned the containers, the new owner will keep the original lines lettering on the containers as removing lettering is a repair cost lines typically avoid.  Maersk is a case in point.   They absorbed P&O Lines, Hamburg Sud and Safmarine.   These lines had large owned fleets.  You still see these containers moving on stack trains as they are still in their useful life and are hauling Maersk cargo.   When a line sells a owned container to a third party and not a line operator, usually one of the parts of the sale agreement is that the buyer must remove all shipping lines markings.  But again this does not always happen.

Seems containers don't get tagged with graffiti as much as regular freight cars. 

Must be a simple explanation?

Chuck 

RailDawg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Seems containers don't get tagged with graffiti as
> much as regular freight cars. 
>
> Must be a simple explanation?
>
> Chuck 

They don't sit still long enough to get tagged.

Most shippers operate gated facilities.  In these locations the containers are parked very tight against each other.